Iconography refers to recurring images/traits in a certain genre. These iconic elements are usually immediately recognizable thus letting the know what to expect. Especially in a horror film iconography follows a standardized pattern and won’t deviate from its orginal format. This formula helps to differentiate from good and evil in the film. Iconography may come in a variety of forms such as the narrative, for example a horror narrative may inculde a monster terrorizing a city, vampires preying on the living or encounters with the supernatural and the structure of the plot (discovery, conflict, end result) also contributes. Iconography can also be thought of as a ‘building block’ when creating a horror film as help to construct the purpose and themes.
Horror iconography can be linked to certain symbolic images that have appeared throughout the genre’s history. These include; a haunted location (sometimes the creature/killer itself will lurk in these areas), symbols of death, a disfigured face, the victim(s),The phallic murder weapon and dismembered body parts. Our film will include some of these like the haunted location will be in the form of the woods and the experiment will be filmed wandering through the area and the victims will include the experiment itself and the public.
The costumes are varied in a horror film and this is probably because characters depicted in horrors are normal people in an extraordinary situation. For example cabin in the woods explores normal teenagers fighting for their lives but all of them have a different sense of style. Whilst a film like ‘the mist’ takes place in a supermarket which shows a variety of people. However the killer normally wears torn, dirty clothes and may choose to wear a mask. Our character will also be wearing torn clothes as to portray the peril of their situation.
The style normally consists of fast paced moments of suspense. This might be included in our opening shots as we explore details of the lab in fast paced moments. Mainly the style is used to make the audience scared and this could be achieved in one of the POV shots we plan to do, which will show what the experiment sees.
Themes play a main part in a horror story as they re-appear over and over again but can be shown in many different ways. A horror theme normally portrays the dark side of humanity. This will be shown through the use of the experiment whilst also showing a further theme of horror; the evils of science. Interestingly the villain is normally a representation of a person’s worst fears from the era the movie was made. For example in a western horror the villain are consistent with the repression of sexuality whilst in a European horror monsters are normally cultural myths. this is something our group could consider.
Horror iconography can also be expressed through the use of colours such as red and blacks.
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